Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus which prints a sheet by a printhead. More specifically, the present invention relates to a printing apparatus which, when printing on both sides of a printing sheet, feeds sheets while narrowing the distance between a preceding sheet and a succeeding sheet, and shortens a time between completing a printing operation for the preceding sheet and starting a printing operation for the succeeding sheet.
Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-15881 describes a printing apparatus for controlling to make the marginal area of the leading edge of a succeeding sheet overlap the marginal area of the trailing edge of a preceding sheet, which comprises a feeding means for separating and feeding a plurality of sheets one by one, a printing means for forming an image on a sheet, a conveyance means for conveying a sheet to the printing means, a detection means for detecting a sheet, and a control means for controlling driving of the feeding means according to a signal of the detection means.
However, the apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-15881 can start to feed a succeeding sheet only when the marginal amount of the trailing edge of the preceding sheet and the marginal amount of the leading edge of the succeeding sheet are confirmed before the start of feeding of the succeeding sheet. This imposes a technical problem that it takes time to start to feed the succeeding sheet.
When printing on the both sides of the printing sheet, there is also a technical problem that how to start feeding the succeeding sheet is not clear.